INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. THE position, which Mr. Wheaton occupied in the world of letters, and the space, which he fills in the legal and diplomatic annals of his own country, would give interest to the most ample details connected with his biography. These the Editor hopes to be able to present, at a future day, with a selection. from those miscellaneous writings, - the results of the favorable opportunities for the cultivation of the elegant arts, as well as for investigations more particularly appertaining to his peculiar pursuits, which his long residence in different capitals of Europe afforded. His public despatches, and the correspondence which he carried on with many of the most eminent of his contemporaries, both at home and abroad, on subjects which have entered into the permanent history of the world, or which tend to elucidate questions of constitutional or international law, will likewise impart additional value to "The Life of Henry Wheaton." The pages allotted to an Editorial Notice will not admit of any extended remarks, not immediately applicable to the treatise of which it forms the Introduction. The rank, however, which is accorded to the "Elements of International Law," in the cabinets of Christendom, where it has replaced the elegant treatise of Vattel, whose summary long formed a substitute for the more elaborate works of Grotius and Wolf, and the consideration which it enjoys, not only among diplomatists, but in legislative assemblies and in the tribunals administering the common b jurisprudence of nations, seem to render it proper, in offering to the public the first American edition of his great work, that has appeared since Mr. Wheaton's death, to furnish a brief sketch of his public career and preliminary pursuits. Those who are acquiring from his labors the fundamental principles of that science, of which he was not only a teacher, but which he successfully applied to the service of his country, may well desire a personal acquaintance with the author. It will, it is believed, at least, tend to dispel the illusion, that eminence in diplomacy is attainable by different means from those which are required in other pursuits of life, and show that a minister, worthy of the name, is no more to be created by an executive fiat than a general or an admiral. Henry Wheaton was born at Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, on the 27th of November, 1785. He was descended from a family identified with that Commonwealth from its earliest colonization. His father, Seth Wheaton, acquired, by commerce and navigation, a fortune sufficient to enable him to afford to his son those advantages of liberal culture and early foreign travel, that so eminently contributed to his success in the subsequent pursuits of life. The elder Mr. Wheaton maintained, during a long business career, a distinguished position among his fellow-citizens; and he held, at the time of his death, the Presidency of the Rhode Island Branch of the Bank of the United States, a station which, from the controlling influence possessed by the parent institution over the currency of the country, till its fatal contest with the government of the Union, in President Jackson's administration, was regarded as the most honorable distinction that could be conferred on a retired merchant. Mr. Wheaton's mother is represented to have been a woman of strong intellect and of rare delicacy and refinement; and it was by the intercourse with her brother, Dr. Levi Wheaton, not only eminent as a physician, but distinguished for his literary culture, and who, afterwards, became his father-in-law, that our author's early taste for knowledge was stimulated and encouraged. Mr. Wheaton, after receiving the ordinary preliminary instruction, graduated at the College of his native State, now Brown University, in 1802. During the ensuing three years he prepared himself, in the office of Nathaniel Searle, then among the prominent practitioners at Providence, for admission to the bar. His studies were, from his earliest days, of a character appropriate to the education of a publicist. Besides his proficiency in the classical and mathematical departments, he was particularly distinguished, at school and college, for his fondness for general literature, and especially for historical research and the investigation of the political annals of nations. In the spring of 1805, he went to Europe, and though his desire for intellectual improvement and his sound moral principles would, probably, have proved an adequate protection against all improper temptations, it was, perhaps, well for his future success that his father's moderate views of expense did not permit him, at once, to luxuriate in a great metropolis. He established himself at Poitiers, where there was a school of law. His object seems to have been to acquire a familiarity with the use of the French language, in which he had been early instructed; while he availed himself of the opportunity to frequent the tribunals and study the civil law. Indeed, in this branch of jurisprudence, Mr. Wheaton might almost be deemed a pioneer among his countrymen. Even Pothier, whose works contributed so largely to the Napoleon Code, had not then been made accessible to the American lawyer. Nor had Kent and Story, whose decisions derive so much value from their abundant stores of continental lore, and both of whom had repeated occasion to appreciate the early studies of Mr. Wheaton, then assumed their places in the tribunals, which they subsequently illustrated the one as Chancellor of New York, the other as a member of the Supreme Federal Judiciary. At the time of Mr. Wheaton's residence in France, the |